Conference

When the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian and inflation lasts longer than the minimum number of e-folds, the likelihood that we observe mild deviations from isotropy increases. I will present a single framework that encompasses many of the most promising scenarios for generating a hemispherical power asymmetry. This framework allows a comparison of the observational evidence for various models, including some with a natural connection between large scale power suppression and power asymmetry.

Neutrinos occur in great number throughout the Universe, yet remain poorly understood due to their weak interactions with other matter. In particular, individual neutrino masses remain an elusive property for particle physicists and cosmologists abound. Recently, it has been proposed that individual neutrino masses may be constrained from observations of neutrino wakes that result from the relative flow between cold dark matter (CDM) and neutrinos. The only required knowledge for such a detection is the relative velocity field between CDM and neutrinos. However, since neither CDM nor neutrinos are directly observable, their relative flow must be obtained by indirect means. We modify the cosmology code, CUBEP3M, to simulate neutrino N-body particles alongside CDM. We find the result that the relative velocity field can be obtained accurately by applying linear transformations to the halo density field. Assuming prior knowledge of the halo bias, we find that the reconstructed relative velocities are highly correlated with the simulated ones, with correlation coefficients of 0.94, 0.93, 0.92 and 0.88 for neutrinos of mass 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 eV, respectively. We confirm that the relative velocity field reconstructed from large-scale structure observations, such as galaxy or 21 cm surveys, can be accurate in direction and, with appropriate scaling, magnitude.

Beyond its primary fluctuations, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contains a wealth of information on the large-scale structure of the universe, which it illuminates as a backlight. The baryon momentum field is thus imprinted on the CMB through the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect. Current small-scale high-sensitivity CMB experiments make this effect detectable, providing a unique handle on peculiar velocities and baryon physics. I will report a significant detection of the kSZ effect, obtained by combining CMB intensity data with peculiar velocities reconstructed from the galaxy number density field. I will present the prospects for localizing the missing baryons, constraining baryon physics inside galaxy clusters, and measuring the growth rate of structure from the kSZ effect. I will finally explore the possibility of measuring velocities across the line of sight through the CMB moving lens effect.

I will describe a novel method for simulating nonlinear structure formation in cosmologies that have hot or warm collisionless species. After introducing the method, I will show results of our simulations for universes with massive neutrinos, and warm dark matter simulations.